Winter Camp Diary: Day 3 – A Ride in the Park & Rejoining the Cult of Snow

Billy Brown shows off his skills at the terrain park.

The weather on the mountain was gorgeous.

Michael Calore cooks breakfast for the team.

Roberto Baldwin and Karissa Bell get ready for the second day on the hill.

You can find everything at the Village - including fax machines!

Karissa finishes her morning coffee on the balcony.

The Aerial Tram floats across the scenery as we made our way to the terrain park.

Mike Ruocco and Jim Merithew get off the chairlift at the top of a run.

Karissa laughs as Jim zooms in to get a shot on his helmet-mounted Hero2.

Robbie catches some sweet air.

Michael Calore prepares to model for a shoot on the mountain.

The route to the trails at High Camp.

Roberto rides the chairlift to try the terrain park one more time.

Karissa takes a spill and churns up a maelstrom of snow.

Michael Calore and Jim walk back to the lodge through the Village at the end of the day.

Be careful when you open doors at Squaw - sometimes an exit is not an exit.

LAKE TAHOE, CALIFORNIA — Two things happen on the second day of a multi-day snow resort trip. First, the atrophied muscles you put through the paces on day one make their anger known, and second, you get more comfortable on the slopes.

The muscles may be sore, but when you were putting them to work on your first runs of the season, they were gaining the memory that makes each run slightly better. Soon enough, you’re pulling off epic park jumps. Well, epic is a relative term. But you have to start somewhere, and most of the Wired Winter Camp crew started its Friday at Squaw Valley’s terrain park.

While some of the day-glo-bedecked, baggily clothed riders in the park were pulling incredible 360s off huge ramps (possibly while listening to Skrillex or Rick Ross), team Wired stayed on the smaller jumps. After a few wipeouts, it was clear we had made the right decision. Nothing ends a trip to the mountains quicker than a person snapping their spine trying to do something they are clearly not ready for.

Once again, reviews editor Michael Calore took a huge helping of smart pills and opted to steer clear of the terrain park, choosing instead to work on rebuilding his snowboarding skills. One of the pearls of wisdom Calore’s amazing instructor shared with him on Thursday (besides the all important “commit to the turn”), was that snowboarding was a zen endeavor.

“You have to shut everything off to make snowboarding work,” Calore said. “It puts you in a really peaceful zone. Now I understand why people spend so much money and go through so much hassle just to get up here and ride on the mountain. It’s cleansing.”

He’s right. Welcome, Calore, back into the cult of snow. We’ll be sending your laminated membership card to you in the mail.

But sometimes, you break out of that peaceful zen zone, and that’s where the terrain park comes in. Some riders were smooth as butter as they hit boxes, rails and ramps — an aerial ballet of human body, board and snow. We were more of a mosh pit of, “Oh my God, what am I doing?”

Gadget Lab reporter Roberto Baldwin won the award for the most crashes. It was easy to hand it to him, since he fell so many times. Robbie’s reason for bailing over and over again: “If you don’t fall, you’re not learning anything.” By the end of this trip, he should have a doctorate in face-plants. During the day’s first photo shoot in the park, Robbie took a particular hard spill. Photographer Ariel Zambelich was concerned he might spend the rest of the trip in the ICU. “He fell so unexpectedly,” she said. “He was riding so smoothly, then all of a sudden there was this GIANT wave of snow. I was shooting, and I must have dropped my camera. I thought he was down for the count.”

But the award for most intense crash goes to Wired reviews fellow Karissa Bell, who caught an edge after falling and ended up smacking the back of her head against the snow. Mike Ruocco the videographer saw the whole thing: “She slammed her head on the ground super-hard. She was down for a minute. It sucked.”

Karissa had just gotten her groove going when she took the tumble.

“I had just landed successfully for the first time ever,” she said, “so my confidence was up, and I decided to give it another go. I went over the kicker and got a little more air than I was expecting. Next thing I know, I land on my head at the bottom and I’m trying to get my face to stop vibrating,” Karissa said.

Like a trooper, Karissa got back up and rode until the lifts closed. Wear a helmet kids, your brain will thank you.

In the end, we got some pretty great still shots. The award for best photo goes to reviews contributor Billy Brown’s rail grab. True story: he’s already swapped out his Facebook cover photo with the picture Ariel shot today. Billy was in love with the terrain park, and ended up spending most of the day there. It was time well spent, as he was able to pull off a 180 on the very same ramps that nearly claimed the lives of Robbie and Karissa.

And finally, photo director Jim Merithew’s reign of falling-on-top-of-people terror continues. Maybe he follows too closely, maybe his stopping skills aren’t as fantastic as they once were. Or maybe he’s using us all to break his falls. Whatever the reason, if you see Jim on the mountain, do not pass him unless you can put some distance between the two of you. He will fall, and he will wind up right on top of you.